The Northern Territory news Wed 20 Jun 2012
NT news
The Northern Territory news; NewspaperNT
2012-06-20
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English
Community newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin; Australian newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin
Nationwide News Pty. Limited
Darwin
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Nationwide News Pty. Limited
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/241367
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/619661
www.ntnews.com.au Wednesday, June 20, 2012. NT NEWS. 33 P U B : NTNE-WS-DA-TE:20-JGE:33 CO-LO-R: C-M Y-K Contact our helpful staff for all your Barge requirements Phone: 8932 3344 Fax: 8932 4468 2 Pearl Court, Berrimah NT 0829 PO Box 4800 Darwin NT 0801 enquiry@shorebarge.com.au ShoreBarge services communities to Kalumburu in the west and throughout Arnhemland. Our vessels are available for Charter. 1 0 6 1 7 7 0 ntnews.com.aul l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l BUSINESS WEEK Arafura in bid to raise cash TERRITORY rareearths junior Arafura Resources went into a trading halt on Friday pending an announcement on a capital raising. The company has been trying to raise extra funds to pay for a $74 million prefeasibility study on its proposed Nolans Bore project near Aileron, north of Alice Springs. Last month it signed a memorandum of understanding with an unnamed Korean company. The trading halt was scheduled to be lifted yesterday. A map outlining planned protected areas off the NT and FNQ coast. The green areas represent proposed marine parks where all fishing will be banned, the dark blue areas are special purpose zones and the light blue areas are multiple use zones. Some commercial fishing practices will be banned in these zones Marine park initiative rocks fishing industry By ALISON BEVEGE THE TERRITORY fishing industry has been rocked after more than 150,000sq km of fisheries were included in the national marine park network which it says could give an open invitation to illegal foreign fishermen. The Northern Marine Reserve Network covers 154,483sq km in eight specific reserves. Two extend into the northwest marine region while six areas off the NT coast have been included in the plan, which is open to a 60-day consultation process. Fisheries affected include the Northern Prawn Fishery, NT Finfish Trawl, NT Coastal Line, Spanish Mackerel, Demersal Longline, Timor Reef and offshore net and line fisheries. Marine national park zones given a protected status will exclude commercial and recreational fishing as well as mining activities. Multiple use zones will allow existing uses to continue but will exclude activities considered a high risk to conservation. Set mesh net, bottom trawl, demersal longline and pelagic gillnet will not be al lowed in multiple use zones. NT Seafood Council chair man Rob Fish said the impact on the Territorys $128 million per year fishing industry had not been measured. The Territory was the only place in Australia that still had a developing fishery. Now that process is stalled, he said. Mr Fish said no investment would go into the new multi-use areas as the rules could change on what equipment could be used. He said the focus had shifted from sustainable development to conservation. They are likely to be full closures anyway which would deliver them to illegal foreign fishing. Would you invest a couple of million dollars into a fishery that was a marine park? It would never happen, he said. There will be no fishing or oil and gas exploration in a 5908sq km national marine park called Wessel though more than 72 per cent is zoned multiple use.. Two special purpose zones a 7125sq km zone called Arnhem, above Maningrida and a 2251sq km area called Joseph Bonaparte Gulf above the WA border will ban bottom trawling and demersal longline fishing but allow other commercial and recreational fishing. About 56 per cent of the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf area is zoned multiple use. There are three multiple use zones including the 71,743sq km Oceanic Shoals which stretches out from north-west Darwin into WA, and another 22,924sq km area called Arafura northeast of the Cobourg Peninsula. In these areas there is to be no bottom trawling or demersal longline fishing as well as a ban on set mesh nets and pelagic gillnets. Worlds biggest uranium deposit? TERRITORY uranium miner Energy Resources of Australia has approved a $57 million study on a potential new mine. The Ranger 3 Deeps deposit, recently found on the existing Ranger mineral lease surrounded by Kakadu National Park, is one of the biggest new uranium discoveries in the world. There is believed to be 34,000 tonnes of uranium at the new resource, which would be about double the size and purity of the billion-dollar Angela and Pamela deposits. ERAs board approved the $57 million prefeasibility study on Thursday. It will be conducted from 2012 to 2014 and will evaluate the possibility of a new underground mine. Chief executive Rob Atkinson told BusinessWeek he was excited about this next development. This is about finding more information about the ore . . . changing it from resources to reserves, he said. This work will help determine whether we have got a viable project, an economic project. A further 16,000m of resource definition drilling will make up part of the study, in addition to the recently begun $120 million exploration decline. Without a new mine, Ranger is doomed to close as it has run out of ore. Mining in the open pit had been due to end this year. A decision will not be made until late 2014 on the viability of mining Ranger 3 Deeps and the company has said no decision will be made without the agreement of the local traditional owners, the Mirarr people. Ranger mine, which has been operating since 1980, is one of only three mines in the world to produce more than 100,000 tonnes of uranium oxide. It was the source for 1 per cent of the worlds electricity in 2009-10, the company says.